Viox had been right, as soon as Alex had informed Kara that they were going to talk about anything to do with humans and sex, the blonde had balked and chosen to spend time with Eliza instead, so Alex spent at least two hours a day with Viox, learning basic Kryptonian and talking about Kara with Viox. In their sessions, they also brainstormed ways to help Kara deal with her sensory overload and also to test and track her new abilities and their limits.
"Speed is rising every time we test. Kara good at running. Time go down every time." Alex reported in Kryptonian. Viox expected Alex to speak to him in Kryptonian so she had more practice and Alex, though grasping a very basic vocabulary after a month, still sounded like a pre-schooler.
"Very good. How are the flight tests?"
"Much more… graceful?" Alex scrunched up her nose. "How do I say that in Kryptonian?"
"Graceful." Viox enunciated carefully. Alex repeated the world, then tapped her tablet to write down the word in Kryptonian characters and recorded Viox repeating the word then repeated it herself.
"Graceful."
"Very good, Alex. You are improving quite quickly."
"Still too slow." Alex frowned. "I feel stupid."
"Learning a second language is always difficult. But you understand most of what I'm saying to you now, it's just communicating what you want that is a problem." Viox soothed. "Now, can you tell me about how she is doing socially in school?"
"Socially?"
"Does she have any friends?"
"She has a good friend named Sharon. She is doing well." Alex tripped over some words but Viox listened patiently. "They eat together at lunch. And they call each other."
"Do you eat lunch with her?"
"We have different lunch time." Alex explained. "She does not need me to help much. She is doing much better. Does not freeze anymore. As much."
Viox corrected her sentence and they spent an hour or so more conversing until Viox called it a day, seeing that Alex was getting frustrated and tired.
"Just practice your pronunciations. And remember the sounds we were practicing." Viox's top yawned open and Alex climbed out wearily. Learning a new language was hard and her throat hurt from some of the words that she had to pronounce, the sounds she had to make were not natural sounds on the English language. They didn't come naturally to her but it was getting easier with a month of practice.
"Alex!" Kara had been waiting outside the ship, hopping from one foot to the other. She was dressed in a bright sundress with colourful flower prints all over the dress. Eliza was there looking at Viox warily as Alex jumped down.
"Look! I went shopping and I was okay!" Kara twirled in her dress. "And I picked this dress out! It's so pretty!"
Alex grinned as Kara twirled this way and that and held her skirt out so Alex could better see the prints.
"Look! It's so colourful, I love it!" Kara's happy face was suddenly anxious. "Do you like it, Alex?"
Alex grinned and brushed her fingers through Kara's blonde hair, smoothing down the wildness after her twirling around.
"You look very pretty, just like the dress." Alex pronounced to Kara's blushing glee.
"You would like very pretty too if you wore dresses like these." Eliza smirked at Alex. "I don't do colours." Alex folded her arms across her chest and huffed.
"Only black. Ugh, teenagers." Eliza threw up her hands in mock disgust and smiled. "Come on girls, let's get inside and start up dinner. Jeremiah will be home soon."
Kara grabbed Alex's hand in hers and pulled her towards the house; her ability to moderate her strength now was a relief for Eliza. She tried not to let it show on her face or call out when Alex stumbled at Kara's enthusiasm. To be truthful, Eliza was still… cautious with Kara. Her strength and her propensity to shut down if there was too much stimulus had been very difficult to handle at first. Eliza never mentioned it to the girls when Kara was a bit too enthusiastic sometimes and bruised her. The injuries went down when Eliza noticed Alex and Kara's sudden closeness after Alex's fight in school and now, Kara's 'accidents' were far and few in between.
But Eliza still worried.
"Kara, slow down!" Alex chuckled.
"But there's more stuff Eliza bought for me!" Kara gushed. "And Kal-El sent me a cellular phone and I want you to help me!"
Eliza watched the girls race into the house, sighing, before turning to study the spacepod again.
"Hello?"
The spacepod remained silent. Eliza and Jeremiah had both attempted to communicate with the Kryptonian spacecraft, but it had remained silent to all questions, though Alex swears that they have full out conversations.
"Hm." Eliza shut the doors to the shed and locked it up again. She didn't doubt Alex and was slightly disappointed that the spaceship didn't want to talk to her as she trudged back up to the house.
"-shirt has Kim Possible on it!" Kara held out the shirt in question, filled with glee as Alex chuckled indulgently. "Do you like it?"
"Well, you like it." Alex laughed at Kara's pout and Eliza had to bite her tongue to stop from crying out when Kara barrelled into Alex, worried that Kara would throw Alex across the room. That didn't happen, thankfully, and Alex laughed even louder at Kara trying to forcibly put the shirt over Alex's head.
"It's you!" Kara grinned. "Wear your shirt! You're real life Kim Possible!"
"No, get off, you goof!" Alex laughed and squealed as Kara and her rolled around on the floor play-fighting.
"Call me, beep me!" Kara was giggling as she managed to get the shirt over Alex's head before Alex flipped them over and sat on her back, to which Kara replied by floating a few inches off the ground.
"Woah!" Alex laughed, windmilling her arms until she fell forward and hugged Kara around her neck.
"ALEX!" Eliza finally screeched, her voice making Kara scramble to touch the floor.
"What?" Alex looked suitably confused at why her mother was yelling, legs and arms still wrapped around Kara so the blonde was piggy-backing her.
"Alex, you're supposed to be more mature than that! You KNOW Kara's supposed to keep a low profile but if the two of you keep horsing around-"
"What? We're just playing!" Alex felt indignant as she slid off Kara's back. They were just goofing off!
"Alex, you're supposed to watch out for Kara and… you know better than to indulge her-"
"Excuse me?" Alex snapped back, teenage emotions roiling. "Why are you freaking out about this?"
"You're her big sister now!" The fear Eliza felt quickly changed to anger, an emotion which was far less terrifying than fear. "We have rules about Kara using her powers-"
"I'm sorry-" Kara started to say meekly but Eliza cut her off with a gesture.
"No, Kara it's not your fault." Eliza looked at Alex furiously. "I expected Alex to know better, though."
"What? That's so unfair-"
"Go to your room, Alex! Do not argue with me!" Eliza pointed upstairs. Alex's jaw dropped at the unfairness of the whole situation before stomping away in a rage. Kara, petrified by the sudden one-eighty turn of moods also fled upstairs. When Jeremiah came home, he found his wife banging pots and pans in the kitchen and the girls nowhere in sight.
"Honey?" He greeted cautiously, wincing as she slammed a pot down on the stove. "I'm… home? What's wrong?"
Eliza glared at Jeremiah, then went to get a pad and pencil. They had decided this would be the best way to communicate since they found out the hard way that Kara sometimes listened in randomly.
I got angry at Alex for no reason.
"Why?" Jeremiah took over making the salad, chopping the romaine lettuce already on the cutting board.
I was scared Kara was going to hurt her. They were floating in the house. Alex and her were roughhousing and I was so afraid that Alex would get hurt. I just snapped at Alex.
Eliza immediately ripped the scrap of paper off the pad and put it into the flame underneath the pot. She never ever wanted Kara to know that her new family was a bit scared of her.
"I'll go talk to her, okay?" Jeremiah leaned in and kissed his wife on the cheek while she burned the last thing she wrote. He finished cutting up the lettuce, wiped his hands on a kitchen towel and started up the stairs. Round the corner, she saw Kara sitting cross-legged with her ear pressed against Alex's door. It wasn't until he was almost on top of her that Kara noticed Jeremiah and jumped in surprise.
"Jeremiah Danvers, you have returned!" Kara scrambled to her feet. She glanced from the man to the door, wringing her hands.
"Alex still in there, kiddo?" Jeremiah asked quietly.
"Affirmative." Kara nodded. When she was stressed out, Kara tended to revert back to the way she spoke when she first arrived on Earth.
"Why don't you go downstairs and help Eliza with dinner? I'll talk to Alex."
Kara looked stricken, not wanting to move from her spot in front of Alex's door. Alex had shut the door in her face and the blonde hadn't wanted to budge from her post. Kara was sure this was somehow her fault.
"Go, Kara. It'll be alright." Jeremiah urged gently. Kara hesitated, but did as she was told. Jeremiah let out a sigh then knocked on the door gently.
"Alex, it's me."
"Go away!"
"Alex. Open up." Jeremiah used the voice between a request and a demand, waiting a few beats before Alex grudgingly opened the door.
"Hey, Alex." Jeremiah slipped inside and closed the door behind him. "Wanna talk about it?"
"Mom's freaking out and I didn't do anything wrong!" Alex was in pure fight mood, shoulders thrown back, fists at her side.
"I know, Alex." Jeremiah said, hands out in a placating gesture as Alex stood there, brittle and angry.
"Why is she always yelling at me? I didn't do anything!" Alex continued ranting, tears of rage spilling down her cheeks. Those tears only made her more furious as she scrubbed at them with the back of her hand.
"Your mom is adjusting, just like you, honey." Jeremiah knelt down on one knee. He used to be able to do this and still tower over Alex, but now, he had to look up into his daughter's eyes. "Sometimes she's going to act crazy."
Alex sobbed and laughed at the same time, then pouted at the moment of mirth Jeremiah had dragged out of her.
"Come on, Alex." Jeremiah reached out to try and catch Alex's hand, but she stepped back firmly. Jeremiah for a second, was irrationally jealous of Kara. His own flesh and blood in front of him wouldn't even let them hug her without it seeming like they were pulling teeth, but nowadays the little Kryptonian didn't even have to reach out to Alex and the older girl was there beside her to hold her hand. Jeremiah tamped down that feeling and smiled at Alex, hoping that he conveyed that he was on her side. He held out his hand, willing Alex to take it and she finally did after a long internal battle.
"You know your mom's sorry." Jeremiah held her hand gently, not wanting to scare her off with any big shows of affection that weren't initiated by Alex.
"She never says sorry." Alex bit out.
"But she is. And you know she'll always try to show it in her own way. Maybe by giving you a bigger helping of ice-cream today or being easier on you for the whole month." Jeremiah said, causing Alex to laugh a bit. They both knew Eliza would never say sorry if she didn't absolutely have to and would rather try to smooth over ruffled feathers with bribes.
As expected, when Alex came downstairs, the little spat from before wasn't mentioned and Eliza heaped pasta on Alex's plate-she had made Alex's favourite sauce-and also gave her a bigger helping of ice-cream for dessert. Kara watched all this unfold, bewildered that they had gone from screaming at each other to ignoring what had previously happened. At night-time, after she had gone through the night-time regime she had been prescribed, Kara waited patiently until the elder Danvers' were settled in bed, then sneaked out of her room to Alex's.
"Alex." Kara scratched at the door. Alex had been waiting for Kara and opened the door, allowing the blonde to slip in.
"Hey, Kara." Alex was still awake and had been reading a book, waiting for Kara.
"What happened today? I don't understand." Kara said bluntly.
Alex sighed and tugged Kara to the bed so they could both sit down, facing each other.
"My mother and I have a complicated relationship." Alex explained. Kara nodded, waiting for further explanation, but no more information was forthcoming as Alex shrugged helplessly.
"Like… my mother and her sister." Kara supplied, trying to understand what had happened by vocalizing it. "They fought a lot, but my father said that they also cared very much for each other. Just that they do not see eye to eye on many issues."
"Yes." Alex sighed, relieved that she didn't have to explain to Kara.
"But it was still unfair. It was my fault." Kara looked at Alex seriously.
"No, Kara." Alex took Kara's hands in her own, rubbing the spot between her thumbs and forefingers soothingly. "It's not your fault. It's just me and my mom."
Kara nodded, still not quite getting it but fine with dropping the subject, especially since talking about it seemed to make Alex sad. Kara could tell, could hear it in her heartbeat and the subtle changes in Alex's chemistry.
"Hey, do you want to fly with me?" Kara was already whirling away towards the window, unlatching it carefully and working the handle until the window was wide open.
"Kara-"
The little girl had already slipped out the window and poked her head back in, a serious look on her face.
"You uh, you don't wanna go for a ride, do you?"
Alex burst out laughing, recognizing the line from a movie they had just finished yesterday. Kara kept her face straight even though her eyes danced with mirth. "We could get out of the palace? See the world?"
Alex shook her head fondly, deciding to play along. "Is it safe?"
"Sure, do you trust me?" Kara shrugged.
"What?" Alex was trying not to laugh at the re-enactment, but it was getting hard.
"Do you trust me?" Kara held out her hand to Alex, smiling winningly.
"Of course." Alex was giggling now too, letting Kara pull her out on the roof of the house.
"On my back?" Kara broke character, turning so Alex could jump on. "We'll go slow."
Alex hesitated a second, biting her lower lip. "But we could get in trouble…"
"It's fine if we just go for a little bit." Kara soothed, she turned to hug Alex, burrowing her nose at the crook of the other girl's neck and taking a deep breath of her scent. Kara noted with pleasure that the smell of sadness was dissipating. "It makes you happy when we fly."
"Because it makes you happy." Alex circled her arms around Kara's neck, barely feeling it as Kara lifted off gently, having practiced enough to be able to control her flight perfectly now.
"How do you know? Can you smell me, too?" Kara pushed away just enough to look at Alex in the face as they corkscrewed upwards lazily in the air.
"No."
"How do you know I'm happy when I fly, then?"
"Because I can just tell-wait a sec." Alex narrowed her eyes at Kara. "Are you smelling me again? Can you smell when I'm happy?"
Kara grinned awkwardly, shifting Alex in her arms so she was carrying the older girl with one arm under her legs and the other on her back. Alex took Kara's glasses from her face and put them on her own, waiting a second as Kara blinked and adjusted her vision without her glasses. With Alex's help, Kara was quickly getting a grip on her various powers, prolonged exposure to Alex definitely helping.
"Hold on tight, Alex!" Kara whispered, then started flying towards the beach at a modest pace. The wind was loud, whistling past their ears, Kara had learned to moderate her speed and pay attention to the precious cargo she carried. The first time they had flown fast, Alex had gotten wind burn on her face and arms and had tears running down her face. Alex had brushed off incident, saying that she was alright, but Kara had been horrified. It was trial and error with them, with Alex's well-being the sacrifice if Kara made a mistake, so Kara learned extremely quickly how to get a handle on her powers.
"Don't think I'll forget about the smelling thing when we get back home." Despite the sound of the waves and the wind of the beach, Alex's whispered words were loud in Kara's ear and made the Kryptonian pout.